Strand guide



Dec. 27, 1955 R. P. SMITH 2,728,536

STRAND 3 GUIDE Filed April 12. 1954 H5 INVENTO I-IIS ATTORNEY R. 1 H619 ROBERT 1? SMITH United States Patent STRAND GUIDE Robert P. Smith, East Haven, Conn., assignor to Heany Industrial Ceramic Corporation, New Haven, Conn, a corporation of New York Application April 12, 1954, Serial No. 422,485

4 Claims. (Cl. 242-157) This invention relates to a strand guide such as employed in textile machinery, and has for its purpose to afford a simple and improved form of guide, possessing a low manufacturing cost and easy to operate.

Strand guides for this purpose are frequently made with guide eyes of refractory or abrasion-resistant mate rial, and it is a particular object of the invention to provide a strand guide with a guide eye that can be economically manufactured and which is not subject to abrasion or chipping of any of its outer surfaces.

A further purpose is to afford a strand guide having a guide eye that can be rigidly and firmly held on a suitable wire holder either of conventional form or constructed to cooperate with the guide eye.

Another object of the invention is to produce a guide eye that can quickly and easily be inserted on or removed from the wire holder and which when positioned on the holder is held with extreme rigidity, and cannot become accidentally loosened on the holder.

To these and other ends, the invention consists in the construction and arrangement of parts that will appear clearly from the following description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, the novel features being pointed out in the claims following the specification.

In the drawings:

Fig. l is a plan view of a guide eye constructed in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention and removed from the wire holder;

Fig. 2 is a similar view showing the wire holder attached; p

Fig. 3 is a view in side elevation of the guide eye with the wire holder removed; 7 1

Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 3 with the wire holder attached;

Fig. 5 is a view in side elevation of the guide eye 0 looking in the direction opposite to Fig. 3;

Fig. 6 is a view similar to Fig. 5, with the wire holder attached;

Fig. 7 is a rear end elevation with the wire holder attached;

Fig. 8 is a perspective view of a conventional wire holder, and

Fig. 9 is a sectional view of the guide eye, showing a modified form of wire holder.

Referring more particularly to the drawings in which like reference numerals refer to the same parts throughout the several views, the invention in its preferred em bodiment includes a guide eye of suitable abrasionresistant material that is produced in conventional fashion by molding and heat-treatment, and includes a forward eye portion 1 and a rear supporting portion 2 that is detachably mounted on the wire holder.

Various types of construction have been proposed and tried for attaching a guide eye to a wire holder and these have proved unsuccessful for various reasons. In some cases, the wire holder does not maintain the guide eye with sufficient firmness, and in other instances the guide eye is necessarily weakened by its construction or has its exterior surfaces formed so as to render it readily susceptible to chipping and breaking. In order to overcome these objections, the rear supporting portion 2 of the guide eye is provided with an elongated vertical slot 3 that extends from the top to the bottom of the supporting portion 2 of the guide eye and is spaced from the ends and sides of the supporting portion as shown.

The slot 3 is defined by spaced flat parallel side walls 4, connected by arcuate end walls 5, the slot 3 being located in spaced relation to the sides of the supporting portion 2 of the guide eye, and preferably although not necessarily closer to one side than to the other side of the guide eye. In order to retain the guide eye firmly and securely on the wire holder, the side which is farther removed from slot 3 is provided with an integral enlargement 6 which projects outwardly and is positioned to engage and cooperate with the wire holder in a manner that will now be described. The slot 3 has a width transversely, or from side to side of the supporting por-' tion, approximately the same as the thickness of the wire holder or the diameter of the wire forming the holder, which fits snugly into the slot, and the length of the slot from front to rear is approximately the same or slightly less than the width of the wire holder so that the latter is compressed slightly and grips the slot firmly.

The guide eye may be attached to a holder of stiff resilient wire of the form illustrated in Fig. 8, comprising a support 7 which may be fastened to a part of the textile machine, a connecting portion 8, a loopshaped member consisting of opposite spaced parallel spring fingers 9 and 11, and a second loop-shaped member comprising opposite spaced parallel spring fingers 12 and 13. The fingers 9 and 11 of the first loopshaped member are substantially parallel and slightly yieldable toward each other due to the resiliency of the wire from which the holder is formed, while fingers 12 and 13 of the second mentioned loop-shaped member are also substantially parallel and relatively yieldable toward each other; The two loop-shaped members are substantially parallel and yieldable toward each other and separated by a bottomv connecting portion 14, 'the distance between theloop-shaped members corresponding to the distance between slot 3 and the far side of the guide eye on which enlargement 6 is located.

Consequently when the first mentioned loop-shaped member is inserted upwardly into slot 3, the fingers 9 and- 11 fit snugly between the sides of the slot and tightly but yieldably engage the end walls of the slot, the cross-see tional curvature of the wire of the fingers preferably corresponding to the arcuate curvature of the end walls 5 of the slot. When thus positioned, the second loopshaped member consisting of fingers 12 and 13 tightly and frictionally engages the side of the supporting portion 2 of the guide eye, and finger 12 resiliently engages the enlargement 6 which latter presses finger 12 slightly rearwardly and thus eifects a rearward pressure of finger 11 against the rear end wall of the slot 3, and somewhat of a twisting action of the loop-shaped member in slot 3,

whereby a tight and firm engagement is had between the loop-shaped member in slot 3 and the rear supporting portion 2 of the guide eye, which is thus held rigidly between the two loop-shaped members. Downward movement of the guide eye on the wire holder is limited by the connecting portion 14 extending between the two loopshaped members and underlying the bottom surface of the supporting portion of the guide eye, which is readily positionable on the wire holder by arranging the slot 3 in vertical alinement with the loop-shaped member comprising fingers 9 and 11, while the other loop-shaped member consisting of fingers 12 and 13 is in position to engage the outer surface of the opposite side of the guide eye. The guide eye is then moved downwardly over the first mentioned loop-shaped member as far as permitted and is retained fixedly on the wire holder.

The structure is not confined in its application to any one particular form of wire holder, and Fig. 9 illustrates a modified form including a single loop-shaped member engageable in the slot of the guide eye. In this form, the wire holder comprises a support 15 and a loop-shaped member 16 that is insertable into slot 17 of the guide eye, the loop-shaped member 16 including an outwardly bent portion 18 at its end and an outwardly bent protuberance or projection 19, the portions 18 and 19 acting as stops or limiting elements which serve to position the guide eye vertically in relation to the wire holder. With this type of holder, the slot 17 may be located intermediate the opposite sides of the supporting portion of the guide eye if preferred, and in order to position the guide eye on the holder, the slot 17 is located in alinement with the upper portion of the loop-shaped member 16 and pressed downwardly, forcing the opposite portions of the loopshaped member toward each other until the guide eye passes over the enlargement 19, following which the resiliency of the loop-shaped member causes its opposite portions to spring away from each other until they engage the ends of slot 17 and are positioned approximately as shown in Fig. 9. Thus the guide eye is accurately located and securely held on the wire holder, being maintained against lateral or endwise movement by the opposite fingers of the wire loop-shaped member while vertical movement of the guide eye in relation to the wire holder is prevented by the projecting elements 18 and 19.

The device may be employed with other types of wire holders, the invention in its main aspect consisting of a guide eye with a supporting portion having an elongated slot extending vertically, spaced from the sides and ends of the supporting portion and cooperating with a loopshaped member consisting of resilient spaced parallel spring fingers engageable in the-slot and acting by their relationship to the side and end walls of the slot and the resilient action of the fingers to maintain the guide eye securely against accidental displacement. This arrangement affords a guide eye that can be molded of abrasion resistant material to give maximum strength without weakening the body of the guide eye and without requiring any exterior grooves or portions subject to breaking or chipping. The structure also provides a means that securely holds the guide eye in position merely by engagement of a loop-shaped spring-yieldable member within a slot located between and spaced from opposite sides and ends of the supporting portion of the guide eye, also making it possible to enhance the gripping action of the loop-shaped member by utilizing a second loop-shaped member engageable with an outer surface of one side of the guide eye.

While the invention has been described with relation to certain particular embodiments as shown herein, it is not confined to the details illustrated, and this application is intended to cover such departures or changes as may come within the purposes of the improvement or the scope of the following claims.

I claim:

1. A strand guide comprising a forward strand-receiving eye portion and a rear supporting portion, said supporting portion having a vertical elongated slot extending endwise of the supporting portion from top to bottom and located in spaced relation to the sides and terminating spaced from the end of the supporting portion, and a wire holder including a loop-shaped member consisting of spaced spring fingers yieldably engaging the ends of said slot, said loop-shaped member having a width and thickness corresponding to the length and width respectively of said slot and fitting closely therein and said slot being of suificient length of receive said loop-shaped memher.

2. A strand guide comprising a forward strand-receiving eye portion and a rear supporting portion, said supporting portion having a vertical elongated slot extending endwise of the supporting portion from top to bottom and located in spaced relation to the sides and terminab ing spaced from the end of the supporting portion, a wire holder including a loop-shaped member consisting of spaced spring fingers yieldably engaging the ends of said slot, said loop-shaped member having a width and thickness corresponding closely to the length and width respectively of said slot and fitting closely therein, and a second loop-shaped member connected to the first mentioned loop-shaped member and engaging the outer sur face of one side of said supporting portion and said slot being of sufiicient length to receive said spaced fingers of the wire holder.

3. A strand guide comprising a forward strand-receiving eye portion and a rear supporting portion, said supporting portion having a vertical elongated slot extending endwise of the supporting portion from top to bottom and located in spaced relation to the sides and terminating spaced from the end of the supporting portion, a wire holder including a loop-shaped member consisting of spaced spring fingers yieldably engaging the ends of said slot, said loop-shaped member having a width and thickness corresponding closely to the length and width respectively of said slot and fitting closely therein, a second loop-shaped member connected to the first mentioned loop-shaped member and engaging the outer surface of one side of said supporting portion, and an enlargement projecting outwardly from said outer surface and located in contacting relation to one finger of said second loopshaped member when the wire holder is inserted into said slot, said slot being of sufficient length to receive said spaced fingers of the wire holder.

4. A strand guide comprising a forward strand-receiving eye portion and a rear supporting'portion, said supporting portion having a vertical elongated slot extending endwise of the supporting portion from top to bottom and located in spaced relation to the sides and terminating spaced from the end of the supporting portion, said slot being located closer to one side than to the other side of said supporting portion, a wire holderincluding a loop-shaped member consisting of spaced fingers yieldably engaging said slot, said loop-shaped member having a width and thickness corresponding to the length and width'respectively of said slot and fitting closely therein, a second loop-shaped member connected to the first mentioned loop-shaped member and engaging the outer surface of the supporting portion that is farthest from the slot, and an enlargement projecting outwardly from said outer surface and located in contacting relation to one finger of said second loop-shaped member when the wire holder is inserted into said slot, said slot being of sutficient length to receive said spaced yieldable fingers of the wire holder.

References Cited in the tile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

